Where Does This Stuff Come From?

If you asked me where my blog postings come from, I would be hard pressed to give you a satisfying answer. Usually I will have been turning over in my mind some everyday problem or situation that I have faced, or observed in someone close to me. These tend to be issues involving social interactions, the give and take among individuals. I put myself in the place of a student asking a question of his Teacher: What is the right action in this situation? Not "right" in a moral sense, but "right" as the Buddha used the term -- What action will lessen suffering, and bring me closer to the dharma? A Christian might ask the very same question this way: "What would Jesus do?" (I do not consider myself either a Buddhist or a Christian, nor do I identify with any particular set of religious beliefs, believing rather that what is true in any of them arises from a single source and is the same in all.)

I know that when I have formulated a question like this, and then still my thoughts in meditation, the answer will come to me quickly and of its own accord. It is not necessary or even helpful for me to try to puzzle out the solution in my own mind. My mind is just an individual manifestation of Universal Mind, the God-Mind that knows the answers to all questions before they are asked. All that is necessary is for me to be receptive to guidance, and guidance will come. Often it does not come to me at first in words, but as a non-verbal concept, an awareness that the solution has been with me all the time. If I think the question and its resolution will be helpful to others, I will often sit down and try to put in into words. More accurately, I will sit down and allow words to flow through me onto the keyboard or the writing tablet. Most of my blogs are written at a single sitting and in a short time, with only minor editing after the fact. I consider that the words, like the guidance they describe, are provided to me by Universal Mind, of which my own intelligence is only a messenger.

I find myself adopting this approach in more and more situations in everyday life. Every teacher I have found -- from Lao Tsu to Ernest Holmes, Joel Goldsmith and Adyashanti -- emphasizes that Truth is from God, however that Source may be called in that teacher's particular tradition. God knows our needs before we ask; what is the point of asking God for anything? We attract, or channel, into our individual existence those things that occupy our attention. If our desire is to live a God-centered life, then God must be at the center of all that we think and do. Whether I am deciding what to eat for breakfast, driving on the freeway, overhearing office gossip, or watching television, my thoughts and actions must be consistent with God's Will, which is Love. The answer to "what should I do?" in literally every situation is, "Love." If Love is the guiding principle of your existence, then everything else will flow as naturally and clearly as a spring-fed mountain stream.

Evidently, then, the guidance that flows through me is not attributable to some unique source to which only I have access. In fact, that Source is available to anyone, at any time, and in all places. It can be called God, or Spirit, or Love, or by countless other names in countless tongues; but it is simply the Voice that comes to you when you set aside egoic mind -- the small self -- and allow Universal Mind -- the Higher Self -- to speak to you. Blogging serves a purpose for me, because it allows me to formulate in concrete form the nonverbal guidance that I receive. I hope also that it may serve a purpose for others, by reminding them of their own access to the Source of all wisdom, and the means of accessing that Source through Meditation.